Andrew Brunette was a model of reliability for the Avs. He never missed a game for them while he was on the roster, playing 246 games, (and 19 playoff games) during his three year run. He was an iron man and Mr. Dependable for the Avs. Oh, he also scored pretty reliably as well. In his three seasons he had 24, 27, and 19, goals which translated to 63,83, & 59 point seasons for the Avs. That's right, his lowest point total for the Avs was equal to the most an Av had in all '08-'09.

His style was reliable too. Not the fleetest of foot (and that's putting it rather mildly) he decided to plant himself either behind or in front of the net, scoring garbage goals and making nice passes out in front of the net, that often resulted in assists. He was a perfect fit on a line with Joe Sakic, and that showed as Sakic became the oldest player to break 100pts at age 37. Sakic spent most of the year on a line with Brunette (Not coincidentally this was the year Brunette had 83 points).

The Avs decided to try and get younger and faster after 2008, and that is certainly not Bruno's strong points, so he was allowed to walk. And he walked right back to the Minnesota Wild, which has already bit the Avs in the ass a couple of times.

So even though he "only" spent 3 seasons with the Avs, he made a tremendous impact (at a position the avs have had trouble finding reliability no less), appropriately kind of like a glacier. Slow, but tremendous force. For that steady reliable impact, Andrew Brunette earns his 2nd team All-Decade status.

]]>jibblescribbits@gmail.com (Jibblescribbits)DecemberTue, 29 Dec 2009 06:18:21 +0000Avalanche 3rd Team All-decade teamhttp://jibblescribbits.com/2009-articles/december/avalanche-3rd-team-all-decade-team.html
http://jibblescribbits.com/2009-articles/december/avalanche-3rd-team-all-decade-team.html2000+ years ago the Roman Empire arbitrarily decided that the number system they were going to use was going to be base 10, instead of the much cleaner 12 or 6. That decision has led us to now, where every 1,10,100 and 1,000 years (and sometimes even 5) we get those super cheesy retrospectives that lazy writers use to fill some space . Well I'm certainly not above any such shenanigans so I am using the end of the decade to choose the Avs all-decade team. There will be a 1st team, second team and third team, as well as coach and I'll also unveil the "Sinister-six" the Avs all-decade villain team throughout the week.

If I were a proper writer, I'd take time out to survey Avs experts; mainstream media folks like folks Adrian Dater, Terri Frei, Rick Sadowski, Norm Jones, Mark Moser and even John Kelley (now with St. Louis). I'd also consult all the blogs (linked to in the sidebar) as well as some other knowledgeable fans and come up with a comprehensive list. But alas: I didn't think about this until last week and there's not time to compile all this in time. Instead you get my personal Avs All-decade team(s).

Further restricting allowable hits is going to take the physicality of the game

Better enforcement is needed because players are being careless in their hits.

I'm pretty firmly entrenched in camp #2 at this point. I've argued that current accepted hits, like Kronwall's hit on Havlat, Phaneuf's hit on Okposo, and even Wilson's hit on Moreau should be unacceptable because the way they approached the hit put their adversary in grave danger. I felt all these hits were unnecessarily dangerous, varying in severity, and really should have no place in in the NHL.

As with any good debate, both sides have valid arguments. And with any good debate, the valid arguments are often overshadowed by comically melodramatic overreaction. Unfortunately for both sides, the comically melodrama is usually the headline making reaction, overshadowing the good discussion that needs to occur (and yes I've just accurately described American Politics too.). In camp #2 this has spawned the "all hits to the head should be outlawed" which is about as flawed a rule as you can have. The melodramatic in camp #1 seems to think any time a guy looks down at the puck it means that suddenly it's open season on his head because "he had his head down".

]]>jibblescribbits@gmail.com (Jibblescribbits)DecemberMon, 21 Dec 2009 17:55:31 +0000Welcome to MIN-COL Old time* hockeyhttp://jibblescribbits.com/2009-articles/december/welcome-to-min-col-old-time-hockey.html
http://jibblescribbits.com/2009-articles/december/welcome-to-min-col-old-time-hockey.html*and by old time, I mean pre-lockout clutch, grab, hold, trap bring snoozefest bullshit. I can't believe I wasted 2 & 1/2 hours watching a hugging match. That was shameless trap hockey. I know the Avs had 6 powerplays (and all 6 looked pathetic, which is the reason the Avs lost) but it should have been about 15-9 (plus there should have been a penalty shot for Havlat knocking the net off).

It's a good thing this one was on VS tonight so that no one could see it.

This might sound like sour grapes, and I'll be honest here; I noticed the Wild interference and clutching and grabbing a lot more than the Avs, well because I have burgundy colored glasses and I tend to notice opponents rule-breaking more than the Avs, but that was one of the worst games I've seen in a while. For that game that I just watched to have 0 interference penalties is a god-damned travesty. I noticed two blatent ones by Brunette, a takedown with the puck no where around, and the aforementioned knocking of the net off the moorings.

The Avs were nearly as guilty of this as the Wild were tonight, because let's face it. It had to be blatent for the refs to call it tonight. It's not that the avs didn't have their chances, or that the refs didn't call it consistently, they did. It's that the referee's allowed both teams to play the game in the neutral zone and interfere with anyone trying to make an attack.

Brutal, simply brutal game to watch from a fans perspective. Homer Simpson represents what it was like watching this game tonight:

]]>jibblescribbits@gmail.com (Jibblescribbits)DecemberThu, 10 Dec 2009 04:25:17 +0000Ho Ho Hohttp://jibblescribbits.com/2009-articles/december/ho-ho-ho.html
http://jibblescribbits.com/2009-articles/december/ho-ho-ho.htmlThe Avs recently took their yearly trip to the Children's Hospital in order to torment some sick little kids. The Avs even photo this and use it as propaganda, luckily I was there to document it.

The Avs take time to taunt this little kid while he's in the penalty boxDon't feel bad for the kid though, he actually got a 2:00 instigator for taking Bernie from TJ Galiardi.

]]>jibblescribbits@gmail.com (Jibblescribbits)DecemberSat, 19 Dec 2009 06:07:34 +0000The Avs brutal schedule.http://jibblescribbits.com/2009-articles/december/the-avs-brutal-schedule.html
http://jibblescribbits.com/2009-articles/december/the-avs-brutal-schedule.htmlIn Olympic years, everyone's schedule gets analyzed to the point that complaining about a team's schedule is like complaining about the weather. Every team has a complaint, most are valid, and no one really cares at all. Luckily this isn't a complaint about the Avs schedule, but more a warning towards other teams: The Avs have had an absolutely brutal schedule up to this point, and are still sitting at 4th in the West.

More After the Jump

]]>jibblescribbits@gmail.com (Jibblescribbits)DecemberWed, 09 Dec 2009 03:19:40 +0000Welcome to my new homehttp://jibblescribbits.com/2009-articles/december/jibblescribbits.html
http://jibblescribbits.com/2009-articles/december/jibblescribbits.htmlEdit: I had some spelling errors (because I'm an awful speller) and I forgot to run spell check at 1am when I wrote this. Commenter Grammar Troll helpfully pointed them out. Well except he missed that I had misspelled "month" and put "moth". Egg all over my face. They have been fixed now, and will no longer reign terror onto any more unsuspecting innocent eyes.

Welcome Amigos to my new home over here at Bloguin. Yes it's true, after nearly 3 years at Blogspot, I decided to jump ship over here to Bloguin, and I'm pretty excited about it. I think it's going to be a good switch. In honor of the move I'm going to interview myself in an exercise in narcissism even Sean Avery would blush at.

So, Jibbles, why did you decide to change to Bloguin?

Well the biggest reason is that Bloguin takes care of all the work, and I can worry about focusing on the content of the blog. At Blogspot I never felt like I had it quite right, and that there was always something more to do on the layout, or the pictures. Even now you can see the images in the top corner of the old site are gone, because some imaging service account expired because I didn't use it enough.

I don't have to worry about it here.

Even more importantly, I like to blog about the Avalanche and hockey because writing my thoughts out into coherent thoughts allows me to analyze them and really sharpen the logic and the rational behind any opinion I might have. Even if it's something inherently silly like a jersey buying guide, writing the thoughts out for an audience really makes me work on my arguments and really sharpen my logic. I like that.

The one thing missing at blogspot is interaction with readers. I've tried multiple times at finding a comments section that was user friendly. Alas the hassle with blogspot comments became overpowering, and moving to wordpress was too daunting. Like I said above I wanted to focus on writing, and Bloguin allows me to do that.

Read More click below

]]>jibblescribbits@gmail.com (Jibblescribbits)DecemberTue, 08 Dec 2009 06:43:13 +0000Commenting Guidelineshttp://jibblescribbits.com/2009-articles/december/commenting-guidelines.html
http://jibblescribbits.com/2009-articles/december/commenting-guidelines.htmlAs I mentioned in my previous post, I came over here because the comment interface is vastly superior to Blogspot. The upside is that it makes it easier for me to interact with my audience. The downside is that it makes it easier for trolls, assholes and troublemakers to leave comments. So here's a helpful list of do's and don't for the site, so people can get a feel for what's acceptable: